Energy & Resources Talking Points | 30/01/2018

Energy & Resources Talking Points | 30/01/2018

In today’s talking points, Australia’s top independent gas producer sees production surge on acquisition, a Western Australian hybrid renewable energy project partnering with China has been approved,a report found that Australia has derailed from its 2030 carbon emission reduction target, China’s Electricity consumption hits a six-year high in 2018.

Australia’s Top Independent Gas Producer Sees Production Surge on Acquisition

Santos Ltd is looking to produce 71 million to 78 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in 2019. This is a production rise of up to 32% bolstered by its acquisition of Quadrant assets.

The company’s annual production of 58.9 mmboe was posted, just beating its production guidance. Santos’ fourth quarter revenue increased to 1.04 billion due to the Quadrant buyout as well as higher realized prices for its oil and gas.

The way Santos was able to meet its debt target over a year in advance was through firm LNG prices, coupled with sharp cost cuts and asset sales.

Through reducing its debt Santos was able to fight off takeover attempts, expand its portfolio and revive its dividends.

Santos’ recent purchase of Quadrant has pushed its debt to 3.6 billion.

A Western Australian hybrid renewable energy project partnering with China has been approved

In Western Australia Lacour Energy’s renewable energy project will be going ahead comprising of 120MW of wind, 50MW of solar PV, and a battery storage system. It is looking to create a substantial amount of power meeting 3% of Western Australia’s demands. The company is partnering with Goldwind, a Chinese company that specialises in wind power, for the supply of wind turbines.

The project received approvals at the state and federal levels passing requirements laid down in the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. All that Lacour Energy needs to do is find financing for the heftily priced renewables hub.

Lacour Energy has an even greater 1 GW-plus hybrid project they are developing for Queensland in collaboration with Goldwind. They seem to be one of many companies trying to get their foot into the hybrid renewable energy market. Other companies with up and coming projects include CWP Renewables, Genex Power, Energy Estate, MirusWind, Windlab, and Neon.

A recent review on Australia’s climate change policy conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that the country may fail to meet the Paris climate target at the expected time.

The report describes Australia as being “uniquely vulnerable to climate change”, and says despite the fact that Australia could achieve its goal for 2020, it could fail to reduce 26 per cent carbon emission by 2030 set by the Paris Agreement. The report has also addressed Australia’s reliance on coal for two-thirds of its electricity. It also criticises Australia’s current climate change and energy policies as they should have integrated each other to set a goal of emission reduction for the power sector.

Environment Minister Melissa Price said the government had “the right mix of policies in place to meet our [climate] targets.”

China’s power use rose to 6.84 trillion kilowatt hour in 2018. Yu Chongde, vice president with the China Electricity Council (CEC) said, “This growth is because of the sharp increase of power consumption in manufacturing industry and service sector.” He also mentioned that electricity demand from winter heating, resulted in 25 percent of the power use growth.

In more optimistic news the CEC predicts a 5.5 percent drop in China’s power consumption in 2019 as long as temperatures remain regular.